Joost van der Westhuizen

The 1995 World Cup final was the most momentous game in the history of rugby union, the match that helped unite Nelson Mandela’s new South Africa. At the heart of the Springboks’ 15-12 victory over the side many consider to be the greatest ever New Zealand team was the scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen. Van der Westhuizen is perhaps second only to Wales’s Gareth Edwards in the pantheon of leading scrum-halves.

Van der Westhuizen, who has died of motor neurone disease aged 45, gave the pass that June day in Johannesburg for Joel Stransky to kick his winning drop-goal in extra time. But it was his tackle on the fearsome Jonah Lomu, who was in full flight, that sticks in the memory and at the game’s final scrum close to the All Blacks’ try-line it was Van der Westhuizen who was helping push the New Zealand pack backwards as the seconds ticked away.

Van der Westhuizen was a very different scrum-half from Edwards. He was quick but, at 6ft 1in and over 14 stone, he was also supremely physical, in many ways a ninth forward. He was such a ferocious competitor that he played in the 1995 final with a broken rib after a tackle from France’s Abdelatif Benazzi in the semi-final in Durban a week earlier. The debate continues over whether that on-the-field daring contributed to the disease with which he was diagnosed in 2011.

Son of Mariana and Gustav, Joost was born in Pretoria and at school in Transvaal his exceptional athletic talent was obvious. After leaving the University of Pretoria, he joined a provincial team, the Blue Bulls, and soon began to attract the attention of the national selectors who were trying to build a side that would contest the first World Cup in which South Africa would compete after their isolation in the apartheid era, a World Cup on home soil.

He made his international debut against Argentina in Buenos Aires in 1993, but the following year was still struggling to establish his place in the side that would win the World Cup. When the Springboks travelled to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, there were many places still in the balance and Johan Roux was considered the country’s leading No 9. But Roux missed the tour through injury and the young man grasped his chance with both hands. – The Guardian UK